1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for facsimile, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for facsimile which is capable of performing communications with data processing machines such as personal computers as well as communications with facsimile machines.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a so-called Internet facsimile apparatus, which is connected to a local area network linked to an Internet service provider through a dedicated line or through a dial-up function, has been used to provide at least a function of communicating an electronic mail on a local area network and on the Internet. The apparatus has also been used to perform a function of transmitting image information using an ordinary public line in accordance with a predetermined facsimile transmission procedure.
The use of such an Internet facsimile apparatus enables, for example, transmission of image information between a workstation (a personal computer or the like) connected to a local area network and a facsimile apparatus connected to an ordinary public line external to the workstation utilizing a relay function of the Internet facsimile, thus providing a very convenient service.
Also, when the Internet facsimile apparatus is connected to an Internet service provider through a dedicated line, the use of the relay function provided by the Internet facsimile apparatus is highly advantageous in that communication expenses can be largely reduced for image information communications between facsimile apparatuses located at remote sites from each other, because no extra rate is added for communication between the Internet facsimile apparatuses.
Generally, when an Internet facsimile apparatus is to communicate image information with a workstation connected to a local area network, or communicate image information with another Internet facsimile apparatus through the Internet, an electronic mail is used as its communication application.
The electronic mail utilizing the Internet, on the other hand, is subject to a data format, protocol and so on defined therefor. For example, each electronic mail should contain header information which includes a variety of significant information such as the mail address of an originating user (“From” field), subject information indicative of the contents of the main text of information (“Subject” field) and so on as well as the mail address of a destination user (“To” field).
With a conventional Internet facsimile apparatus, however, information inherent to the Internet facsimile apparatus is added to the “From” field and the “Subject” field in the header information of the electronic mail irrespective of the user who uses the Internet facsimile apparatus. Therefore, if a plurality of image information transmissions are delivered from the same Internet facsimile apparatus to a user, the user will receive a plurality of electronic mails which are only different in received date and time (or transmitted date and time) but have the same transmitter name and the same subject name.
Specifically, when the user of a workstation displays a list of received electronic mails, the contents as shown in FIG. 1, for example, are displayed on the screen of the workstation.
Thus, the user who has received a plurality of electronic mails from the same Internet facsimile apparatus cannot know the contents of the respective electronic mails from a list of electronic mails as shown in FIG. 1. If the user desires certain image information, the user must display the contents of all the electronic mails for finding the desired image information, thus experiencing an inconvenience.